Looking for music to use at a virtual event?
In this post we will explain what you need to do, in order to legally use music in virtual events, conventions, and meetings.
Music is commonly used during events, meetings, and conventions to set the mood, motivate, and energize your audience. It is important to understand and to comply with copyright law when using any third party material.
Especially when broadcasting music to a large audience.
With the pandemic restriction, many events, conferences, and work related business meetings have moved to virtual online platforms.
Moving the event to a virtual, non physical domain does not eliminate the need to comply with copyright and broadcast laws and regulations.
Hi, I’m Mik, one of TunePocket music composers. I put together some tips to help you legally license and use music in virtual events and online conventions. You will also find a couple of music examples that our clients used to motivate and inspire their audiences.
Can I just use any music at my virtual event?
Unfortunately, no. Any use of music for commercial and business related purpose requires careful planning, including understanding the legal requirements and securing the appropriate permissions and licenses.
This is especially important when planning an event where you expect a considerable turnout. After all, you don’t want your event affected by negative publicity or litigation resulting from breaking the copyright law.
Your obligation as the event organizer is to understand the legal requirements that apply in your country and to properly license any music you use, in order to protect your business from possible legal claims from artists, music labels, and public performance societies (PROs).
Let’s see what permissions and licenses you may need to safely use the music before, during, or after the event:
When using music in videos and commercials to promote your virtual event online and on social media
When using music in videos and commercials you need to obtain synchronization license from the song publisher and the master recording license from the recording label.
When broadcasting music to the public during the event
If you want to broadcast music to the online audience (for example, to play inspirational music in the background of the keynote speech) you need may to obtain a separate public performance license from a performance rights organization (PRO) in your country.
Some virtual meeting / events technology providers may already have blanked performance licenses that allow them to broadcast commercial music. However, ultimately this will be your responsibility to check if the network or a Web site that streams your video has the proper license in place.
Related: How to legally use music for virtual business meetings and Zoom presentations.
A simple workaround to avoid purchasing broadcast licenses for virtual events
At this point you must be already wondering if there is an easier way to license music for your virtual event. Fortunately, there is!
Unless you absolutely must use a famous song, you can easily license great music from a music library.
Most music libraries create music specifically for commercial and business use have ready to use licensing agreements that allow you to instantly use their music. This will save you the need to chase down the publishers and recording labels and to negotiate the license terms on your own.
Make sure to check if the library discloses the PRO affiliation for their music.
Using non-affiliated music is the easiest way to eliminate the need to obtain the public performance license when you broadcast or stream the music online.
Use the music created by non-affiliated composers to avoid purchasing the public performance license. For example, here is our collection of royalty free music with no PRO affiliation.
Finally, let’s see what music typically works best for virtual events and meetings.
How to choose best music for your virtual event
Depending on the type of the event, decide what kind of emotion you want to elicit with music. Then decide whether you want the music to drive the action or to stay in the background.
1. Inspiring, motivational, and uplifting music
The inspirational music is great for big openings, keynote speeches intros and outros, and to support any other activity where you want to motivate and inspire your audience.
Here are some examples of great motivational instrumental music tracks:
Listen to more uplifting and inspirational music for events and conventions.
2. Subtle background, lounge music
If you need background music to create pleasant atmosphere for your event attendees (both virtual and not), then consider lounge background music. This type of music is usually mellow and subtle, appeals to wide audiences, and works well to create ambiance during the registration, break, or orientation session.
Listen to more chillout lounge music.
3. Upbeat exciting music
If you need to bring the mood up a notch or to alert your event attendees, consider using upbeat exciting music. Use this to celebrate achievements, highlight important milestones, or to bring attention to sponsored messages.
Listen to more exciting music with upbeat energetic feel.
Takeaway
Using music at virtual events and conventions requires careful planning, including securing the appropriate permissions and licenses for public broadcast.
One option to avoid purchasing a public performance license is to use royalty free music created by the composers not affiliated with performance rights organizations.
Having hard time choosing the best soundtrack for your virtual event or event promotion video? Get unlimited access to thousands of music tracks, loops, and sound effects with TunePocket unlimited royalty free music subscription.
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